


Crossroads

by Kingrey



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Gen, Gun Violence, Hurt/Comfort, I have no idea on how to tag things tbh, Implied/Referenced Torture, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-29
Updated: 2018-08-29
Packaged: 2019-07-04 00:03:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15829641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kingrey/pseuds/Kingrey
Summary: Mac is the one supposed to be the hero, the saviour with a heart of gold, not Riley. She isn't made for this like he is, but she has a gun and fear is not going to stop her.





	Crossroads

**Author's Note:**

> Hey!
> 
> I'm kinda stuck on the 3rd chapter of Breaking Point, and I thought that I should try to write something else instead of persisting and getting frustrated.  
> In both my precedent fics, Riley's got a minor role but I love her so... There she is!
> 
> I hope you have a good read!

“Don’t move!”

Riley knew her voice wasn’t as steady as she had hoped it would be, but she wasn’t feeling really steady herself. Her trembling hands were firmly clenched around the handle of a gun. It was from the guard of the cell she woke up in, who didn’t expect to be attacked by “such a cute girl”. His nose will probably never be the same.

At first, she was pretty confident; she had a weapon, none of the bad guys seemed to take her seriously and Mac was somewhere in the building, probably creating his own havoc. (Well, that was without mentioning what Matty, Bozer and ( _especially_ ) Jack were doing to free them.) They were going to be just fine.

 _Murphy's law, Riley, never forget about Murphy's law_ , she thought a little feverishly. _Especially if Mac is involved_.

She swallowed roughly around the rock that seemed to have taken residence inside her throat. She straightened her arms, trying to fake confidence in front of the asshole of the day. It wasn’t that he was particularly threatening, in fact he looked like the human version of a rat and smelled adequately of sewage water. He also took a knife to a gun fight.

A very big knife. Strategically pressed against Mac’s already bloody neck.

Riley hadn’t expected that. Mac was always the first to escape, he was the rescuer, not the hostage. She thought back on the fact that no one here saw her as a threat and cursed herself for not thinking that Mac would be the focus of their attention. Seeing him so still and bloody, secured to a chair at the hands of their captor, had been like a shock to her system.

The newly nicknamed Mr. Rat chuckled, unperturbed by the order she gave him. The knife still firmly pressed against Mac’s throat with his right hand, he shifted to the left until he was behind the unresponsive blond. He smiled crookedly at Riley, as if amused by her foolishness.

“I said, don’t move!” repeated Riley, the gun aimed for his head. “Let go of him!”  
“Which one is it girly, don’t move or let go?” he smugly replied.

Riley exhaled angrily, trying to ignore her madly beating heart and the terror yelling inside of her. ( _She made a mistake and Mac still wasn’t moving and oh god there was so much blood please don’t be dead_ )

“Let. Go.”

He chuckled again, probably finding the situation hilarious and Riley remembered vividly her first kill, how unprepared she was and how guilty she felt afterwards. She looked at Mac’s shuddering form, at the unfocused blue eye that wasn’t swollen shut, at the blood coating the ground and knew that she was ready to do _anything_ to save him. Her arms weren't shaking anymore.

“I’m not going to say it again” she bite out. “Either you let go or I shoot”  
“Aw come on, we were just starting to be friends!” Mr. Rat laughed, his left hand gently stroking Mac’s bloody cheek. “Right boy?”

He pressed down on the knife, drawing blood and a pained moan from Mac. Riley pulled the trigger, not daring to touch him when he was this close to her friend, but still scratching his shoulder. He jumped, apparently not expecting her to really shoot. His features contorted in anger and Riley tried not to show how relieved she was to be the center of his focus.

“You bitch!” he yelled, “Who do you think you are?!”  
“Let go” repeated coldly Riley, while Matty and Jack’s pieces of advice echoed in her brain. _Regulate your breathing. Do not take your eyes off the target_.  
“Oh, I’m not going to let go you slut! I’m going to sleet his fucking throat before you…”

The gunshot resonated like thunder.

The guy fell on his back, dead, and the silence that took place suffocated Riley. Her eyes were burning and her whole body was vibrating from fear. She choked, before letting her weapon clatter to the floor and running to Mac.

His valid eye was closed but he feebly moaned when she put her fingers on his throat. He was cold, clammy and his pulse was sluggish, which Riley knew was indicative of shock and that was… Not good. At all.

She fell on her knees and faintly tried to free his tapped ankles, but her hands were shaking too hard. Swallowing bill, she too Mr. Rat’s knife and cut it, before freeing Mac’s arms. She was carefully ignoring how much blood was already on him, how pale and dead he was already looking.

“Please Mac” she pleaded, while attempting to rouse him, “I really need you to wake up”

The sight of a confused and pained blue eye focusing on her was what finally broke Riley. She couldn’t contain hers tears while she carefully cradled Mac’s head in her hands.

“... Rile…?” he murmured.  
“Don’t worry, everything’s okay” she smiled through her tears. “We need… We need to get out.”

He blinked dazedly and hummed, probably not very aware of what was happening. Riley wiped off her tears, before collecting the discarded gun and securing it as best as she could on her pants. Then, she carefully wrapped Mac’s right arm around her shoulders while she took hold of his waist. As cautious as she was being, she couldn’t prevent Mac’s pain; if that was even possible, he became whiter than he already was, and she honestly thought he was going to vomit. (He didn’t, thankfully.)

His knees buckled but Riley was braced for his weight and held on. Her heart broke when she heard his pained whimper, but she had to get them out.

“I’m sorry Mac” she whispered, as they finally begun to progress, “I promise that I will fix this. Everything is going to be alright.” Her voice wavered on the last sentence, her eyes watery again. “I’m so sorry” she repeated like a mantra.

They wandered through two or three suspiciously empty corridors before she heard Mac mutter “‘t’s not your fault”. She didn't think she could answer without crying again, so she didn’t.

Arriving to an intersection, she could hear grunts of pain, as if people were fighting. She considered her options, panicked, before helping Mac to lie against the wall. His eye was rolling behind his eyelid and he didn’t react at all to being manhandled. Riley preferred to not think of the implications of that.

“I’ll be back before you know it” she whispered, mostly for herself.

Anxiety coursing through her veins, she took the gun in her hands and quietly approached the noise. Before she could look, she heard the sound of a body hitting the floor. She bite her lips, wishing herself to stop shaking and startled awfully when someone jumped on her.

In one swift motion, she was disarmed and pressed against the wall, and during one terrifying second, she thought that they both were going to get killed because of her stupidity. She had never been so happy to recognise Jack, who released her instantly and hugged her fiercely.

“Riley! Thank god, I thought…”  
“Jack” she interrupted him, breaking the hug “Mac, he’s… Mac’s hurt, badly hurt” she babbled, panicked.

She pointed him and saw how fear took over Jack for a short moment, at the sight of the crumpled and bloody form of his partner. Quickly, he was kneeling at his side, one hand on his throat, the other clenched so hard it was shaking.

“They focused on him” Riley admitted, her voice unsteady. “I couldn’t… I didn’t…”. Her breaths were too short.  
“Hey, everything's gonna be alright” reassured Jack, worried brown eyes meeting her downcast ones. “Medics are on the way, Matty took care of it, and Mac’s a tough guy, you know it. Help me lay him down, we need to elevate his head and his feets to starve off the shock”

Riley knew him enough to see behind the facade of confidence, but did as he instructed. She knew he couldn't afford to worry about both of them right now, and Mac took precedence. He was so unnervingly still. Jack fretted as they waited for the medics, who were only one minute out, while Riley kept her hand on Mac’s cold one.

“I shot him” she croaked, without looking up. “The one who did this. I shot him right in the face.”

Jack’s warm hand covered hers and Mac’s. He didn’t say anything, but she perceived pride in his eyes and maybe it wouldn’t make her forget but for the first time since she saw Mac with a knife against his neck, her chest felt warm again.

**\----**

“Riley, right on time!” exclaimed a smiling Jack when she entered the now familiar hospital room. “I entrust you to Mr. Grumpy here while I go make myself a much needed coffee”

Without letting her the time to even proceed his words, he was gone. She couldn’t help but laugh at his antics, especially when she saw the stubborn but flustered look on Mac’s face. He had normal clothes on but was sitting on the edge of the hospital bed.

“So… What is the problem here?” she smiled.  
“They insist that I need to use the wheelchair to leave but I really don’t need to.”

Riley grinned, not surprised in the least by the subject of the argument. It was true that Mac was looking and feeling much better after three weeks of hospitalization. But his reserves of energy were still low and nobody wished to see him crash on the way to his home.

“You know that it’s the hospital policy” she decided to say instead, “you won’t escape the wheelchair but if you’re nice now, you may obtain something else latter, like not being forced to bed at 7pm by Jack”

Mac still looked grumpy, but the logic was sound so he warily nodded. (Though, he wasn’t really good at hiding his amused smile, but Riley didn’t say anything.)

“I didn't have the chance to say it, but thank you Riley” said Mac quietly when she came to sit beside him.  
“You would have done the same.”  
“Maybe. But you still were pretty brave back there and you saved my life”  
“You’re welcome” answered Riley, after some hesitation.  
“I’m also sorry” continued Mac. “I know it wasn’t my fault, but you were put in a very difficult position and… Yeah, I’m sorry for that.”

Riley tried to look at him but he was apparently determined to look at his shoes. She swallowed the bitter memories and hugged him. He startled but returned it soon after.

“I’m just… Very glad that you are okay. Don’t do that again” Riley said, pushing in the back of her mind the image of a bloodied and deathlike Mac. They were both a little uncomfortable after the hug (they weren’t used to share their feeling openly with each other because ordinarily, both were too understanding of the other’s need for privacy to ask questions) but they needed it.

“Ready to hop on your coach, Mac?” Jack hollered from the corridor.

Mac groaned and Riley laughed, happy that everything was back to normal.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it!
> 
> I'm not too sure about how I handled Riley's reactions, she's not as easy to write for me as Mac or Jack are... And I realised that by giving her a major place in the story, I didn't know where to put Bozer anymore... Well, I'll manage it one day, I guess lmao
> 
> What I hope you took from this story is that I think that Riley is a badass who is afraid but still get things done despite it. (Ah and I love Mac whump but the whole fandom is like that)
> 
> Here are some questions if you want to comment but don't know what to say!
> 
> \- I am pretty vague about the mission, the villains and their motivations, does it bother you? (I discovered that I'm actually quite bad at imagining plausible mission scenarios which is also why I'm stuck in my other fic so I hope it's not a problem =') )  
> \- Do you think that Riley would have fired the gun? (I think this girl does what needs to be done, but she also have a very big heart so idk, I'm always open to alternative endings)  
> \- Did the ending felt rushed? (I had genuinely no idea on how to end this)
> 
> I don't have much more to say for once... I'm half convinced that coach is not the word I was searching for to describe a really pretty car like in Cinderella but I'm too lazy to check on a real dictionary so I'm gonna accept that english is weird
> 
> Well, I hope you had a good read and that you liked my story!


End file.
